I fell into writing about health shortly after grad school, where I realized I didn't want to work in a lab for the rest of my life! My areas of interest are the brain and behavior, as well as what influences the decisions we make about our health, and how the media helps and hinders people's understanding of health issues. As an undergraduate, I studied English Literature and Biopsychology at Vassar College, and got my PhD in Biopsychology and Behavioral Neuroscience at CUNY's Graduate Center in New York City, where I grew up and live now. My day job is as Associate Editor with the health website, TheDoctorWillSeeYouNow.com. My work has appeared in several other publications, including TheAtlantic.com and YogaGlo.com, and I'm particularly excited to join the Forbes health team. Email me at alicegwalton [at] gmail [dot] com .

Starbucks' Power Over Us Is Bigger Than Coffee: It's Personal.

There’s no question that Starbucks has had a tall order in recent years. It’s had to react to the very phenomenon it created in the first place, reassessing and redirecting, made harder by a tumultuous economy. In a sense, Howard Schultz did what Steve Jobs and other great innovators have done, creating something that we didn’t really know we needed until we had it. But Starbucks’s undertaking is actually much larger, and fundamentally different from others’, since it brings us a space rather than a product. Some would say that it fills a psychological need that other companies have not had to do in quite the same way. Whether it’s living up to this unique role is the question.

Physical changes, at least in some Starbucks stores, are palpable, and may reflect bigger changes. In my local Starbucks, for example, a recent renovation brought an army of teeny-weeny tables lined up in formation against the longest wall. Behind them is a lengthy bench, too high to sit comfortably and too wide to rest your back. They’ve amped up the music by adding another speaker. And the new lighting feels fluorescent and cold. The effect of the store renovation is clear: It’s not a comfortable place to sit for very long. “Foot traffic” has clearly increased, but the regulars have scattered. Starbucks Corporate obviously has a lot on its hands, but is this the right direction to go in?

The new “let’s make it slightly uncomfortable” model has a larger effect on the psyches of the customers – those who come to work or to play – than we might think at first. This is because the coffee house plays the central role of “Third Place” in our lives – home being the first and work being the second – and Starbucks has always been vocal about its desire to be this third place for its customer. What’s interesting is that humans actually really need this place, and we’ve needed if for practically our whole existence, according to some.

About 20 years ago, Ray Oldenburg, PhD, who wrote a book called The Great Good Place, argued that there are a number of attributes that make a third place a third place: It has to be convenient, inviting, serve something, and have some good regulars (which, he says, is actually more important than having a good host). People have had third places throughout history, and they’ve ranged from taverns to coffee houses to barbershops. They’re definitely better than street corners. Third places are different from first or second ones because we go to them in our in-between time – their voluntariness is what makes them so special and unique.

Starbucks has succeeded so well at filling this role that it’s become a global third place. And now the company is having to deal with its own heft. To cope, it’s made changes over a number of years – stores seemed to get smaller if more numerous, the smell of breakfast sandwiches replaced the warm aroma of coffee, and espresso machines became mostly automatic. But the newer “slightly uncomfortable” business model of late seems like an especially blatant move, and one that’s not necessarily in a forward direction, at least psychologically speaking.

“Changing the business model from third places to speed lane stops will not change the underlying human psychological need,” says Suzanne Roff, PhD, an industrial psychologist. “The value added to a cup of Starbucks coffee is the safe, unhurried comfortable environment that is not home or the workplace. This has become its brand identification.” If Starbucks continues to standardize its stores and shave down their comforts, its “third placeness” will continue to dissolve, and “urban consumers in particular will lose an informal social network (that emerges without a plan) that is an important antidote to loneliness and isolation…. Those without workplaces may feel more estranged because there will be a sense that there is nowhere to go to feel part of the urban social fabric during the workday.”

Starbucks didn’t provide answers to specific questions about its (changing) business model, but a spokesperson sent me the following statement:

Since 1971, Starbucks stores have become a Third Place – a comfortable, sociable gathering spot away from home and work, like an extension of the front porch. People connect with Starbucks because they related to what we stand for. It’s the romance of the coffee experience, the feeling of warmth and community people get in Starbucks stores. As a standard course of business, we continually evaluate our store portfolio, and review and evaluate our locations to ensure a healthy store portfolio that fits the needs of the community.

I’m not sure what this means, except that they don’t really want to talk about it.

The role of the third place in our lives is undeniably valuable, and there’s a lot of power there. In his work, Oldenburg writes, “Individuals who start their day in a friendly coffee circle will never have a totally bad day and have already developed a degree of immunity from the mean-spirited and unhappy people that the second place often harbors.” But if Starbucks keeps down the road it’s on? To say that it will have a major effect on our psychological well-being would be overstatement. But changing the flavor of its stores as it seems to be doing is almost belittling the very role that it created for itself, and for its customer. It isn’t easy for all of us who used to love our cozy neighborhood Starbucks.

Dr. Roff sums it up like this: “In my own neighborhood Starbucks, I watch the lone reader or laptop writer perhaps feeling less disconnected, the single man or woman looking for attention, the friends meeting up to chat… But if Starbucks doesn’t provide it, I think competitors will.” As the evolution of the third place carries on, Starbucks will certainly have some big decisions to make.

What are your thoughts about Starbucks’ changes in recent years? Where should the company go from here?

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While it was sad that Starbucks nationwide had replaced the comfortable neighborhood entrepreneur’s small coffee shop I did find myself drawn to its intimacy both in my neighborhood and at locations as traveled. I have noticed more neighborhood independents either opening or re-opening and have moved my coffee patronage from Starbucks before it turns into the 2,345th Dunkin Donuts within walking distance.

It’s really unfortunate and irresponsible of you to put “let’s make it slightly uncomfortable” in quotes. That is your impression, not an actual quote from Starbucks nor something stated in their public information on their approach to store design, yet you make it sound that way in your article. As an architect I find their new store designs to be very comfortable and inviting. If anything, there’s more seating for customers, more variety in seating types, and more room to move around the store. There’s also a variety of lighting, sustainable finishes, and incorporation of local art, community news, and architectural character in the stores that I frequent. You’re entitled to your opinion, but you make a lot of assumptions about their design intent without any real knowledge other than your own experience in one store.

For those of us in freelance work, Starbucks is not just a third place, but often a second place, too. Over the past few months, I have had an increasingly difficult time working at various Starbucks locations in my area. The music has been much louder, and much less “background” in nature. I also have noticed that the temperature in the stores has been cooler – really uncomfortable for sitting for more than a few minutes, whether it is cold or warm outside. I’m glad to know the decreasing comfort level isn’t just my imagination!

It wasn’t the coffee that brought us into Starbucks, it was the third place environment. When someone wants to meet, Starbuck’s name comes up like “Kleenix” does for tissues. They did a great job of creating a third place for business, for social, for young and for older people. Without the Third Place environment, I can get coffee, tea, or other products at many of the competitors.

A newly remodeled Starbucks just opened in Cool Springs (TN). The chairs are awesome and the big cushy leather chairs are gone. Usually this store is packed with people hanging out but not after the remodel. I go for the experience and atmosphere first. I can get a better cup of joe at Dunkin Donuts. So, unfortunately I won’t be going there much. Barnes and Noble has done the same thing. At a time when they need customers, any customers, they decide to inconvenience them. So I sit in my big cushy sofa at home and order books off Amazon instead. Maybe I’ll start roasting my own coffee beans too.

Hogswash! Come on Forbes, you’re better then this. The author of this article is relying solely on his opinion without a single shred of credible evidence with regards to his claims against Starbucks. And because its in vogue these days to go after national brands, even ones that have done more for the environment and for their employees then about any major brand out there. And of course, then there is the, “Well my brother dates a girl who works at Starbucks and she said…” Again, hogwash.

I had a very successful management consultancy for many years, recently launching a executive coaching and business strategy firm. I have studied and written extensively about Starbucks and the author could not be more off base. The remodels, especially in their larger “third place” stores, has resulted in making for MORE seating not less. As apart of the retooling, they started offering free internet when all this launched a year or so ago. They’ve also greatly added the number of power outlets available. As well, they will soon be launching a much improved food line to their stores. Does this sound like a company that does not wants to shun its roots? Hardly.

Ive made it my business to know a hell of a lot about Starbucks and will be the first to say, they have lost their edge in certain key areas. I think they have some core issues to resolve, issues core to their brand. But for Forbes to allow this kind of reckless, poorly informed article to get published, an article void of any research, its well beneath the standard that has always been Forbes.

I’ve been a fan of Starbucks as a keen marketing company, but this apparent transition in focus is a harbinger of woe. There are better cups of coffee out there – Starbucks product has always been “being there itself.” If they screw this up, they’ll go the way of so many other companies that lost sight of what their essential brand value was all about.

I recently emailed them to express my displeasure with their new internet access, which is far more glitchy to connect to in the first place, and slower thereafter. Add to this the seating changes, music and lighting changes, and it’s clear they’re at war with the very ambiance that we came to love.

Not that they’ll listen, but not that we won’t be able to say “we told you so” when we migrate elsewhere (my apology for the triple negatives, but that just sums up the entire negativity that this matter represents).

Thanks for your comments, nontechietalk; they’re great. It’s definitely sad, these changes. I realize more and more every day, as I talk to the ex-regulars of my local Starbucks, how very much the changes have disrupted the community. We’re all at loose ends now, with no real “home” anymore, and it’s really quite distressing! There’s a new mom and pop coffee shop coming to the hood soon — maybe they’ll save the day! All the best.